1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a robot cleaner, and particularly, to a robot cleaner capable of performing a cleaning operation with respect to a user's desired region.
2. Background of the Disclosure
Generally, a robot has been developed for an industrial use, and has managed some parts of factory automation. As the robot is applied to various fields recently, medical robots, space robots, home robots, etc. are being developed.
A representative of the home robot is a robot cleaner, a kind of home electronic appliance capable of performing a cleaning operation by sucking peripheral dust or foreign materials with autonomously moving on a predetermined region. This robot cleaner is provided with a chargeable battery, and is provided with an obstacle sensor for avoiding an obstacle while moving. Further, robot cleaners, capable of performing a self position recognition function and a map creating function using cameras or various types of sensors, are being developed.
When a robot cleaner performs a cleaning operation with respect to a large space, the following problems may occur. First of all, it takes a lot of time to perform the cleaning operation. Further, some regions may not be cleaned to result in lowering of cleaning efficiency. In this case, a user may reduce a cleaning time by firstly cleaning some regions, or by repeatedly cleaning only some regions.
In the conventional robot cleaner, as shown in the following precedent patent documents 1 and 2, a user positions a robot cleaner below a position recognition mark installed on the ceiling within an operation region. Then, if the user controls the robot cleaner to remember an identification number of each room, the robot cleaner can distinguish a plurality of operation regions from each other. However, in this case, the following problems may occur. Firstly, in order to set a position of a specific region, the user should mount the position recognition mark on the ceiling. Further, a recognition function by the robot cleaner may be degraded as dust or foreign materials cling to the position recognition mark.
In the conventional robot cleaner, as shown in the following precedent patent document 3, light is emitted from a laser point of a remote controller so that a specific region can be cleaned. Then the emitted light is reflected with a value. Based on the value, a position of the robot cleaner can be detected. However, in this case, it is difficult to detect a precise position according to a form of a bottom floor. Further, in a case where a specific region is set by the laser point of the remote control unit, there may be some points within the region, on which the robot cleaner can not move.